Method of manufacturing hollow ware of silver or the like



L. WEIDLICH ET AL 1,717,482

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING HOLLOW WARE OF SILVER OR THE LIKE June 18, 1929.

Filed Oct. 10, 1925 m a mi V.w a W a u w} w? a 2 ATTORNEYS In the drawings:

Patented June 18, 1929.

UNITED sTAT Es PIATENTV'IIOFFICE."

LOUIS wEInLIcH Ann; MARTIN r. TRAC OFSTRATFVORD, nn ALFRED J. FLAUDER,

or FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNORS TO THE wnrnLIoH Bnos. mre ico; or

IBRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, AoonPonA'rIoN or oonnno'rrcu'r.

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING HOLLOW WARE or sinvsnon THE LIKE.

Application filed October 10, 1923: Serial N0.G67,713. I

This invention relates to an improved method of manufacturing hollow ware, of silver or the like, and hasfor an object to provide a method by which such articles, havr ing surface ornamentation, may be produced upon a large scale production basis, and very economically, both as regards manufacturing equipment and the cost of the articles.

A. further object is to provide animproved. method of producing an ornamented die plate to impress and thereby ornament sheets of material from which ornamental articles are blanked, and by which method a die plate havinga continuous ornamental design may be provided, that is,a style of decoration such as is commonly followed in designin wall paper and dress goods,and in which a designis repeated in specified areas, sojoined that the complete ornamentation has no definite beginning or end.

A still further object is to providea method of producing articles of various shapes and sizes having the same style of ornamentation, and in which such articles are produced from a single typeof ornamented master plate, the ornamentation of such plate being also the ornamentation of the articles.

lVith the above and other objects in view, an embodiment of our improved method is illustrated in the accon'ipanying drawings, and this embodimentwill be hereinafter more fully described with reference thereto, and the invention will be finally pointed out in the claim.

Fig. l. is a plan view of a metal plate upon which the design unit is originally painted; f

Fig. 2 is a similar view, showing the same coated with transfer material;

. F 3 is a plan view ofthe master die plate, showing the design transferred in a continuous or repeated relation thereon, and etched to produce the same in intaglio;

Fig. at is a sectional view thereof, taken along the line 4l-t of F 3;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the plate of silver, or other suitable material impressed with the design from the master plate;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view thereof, taken along the line 66 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a ortrayyand 1 Fig. 8 is a sectional viewfthereof.

Similar reference characters indicateflcorresponding parts throughout the severalfiguresofthe drawingsw y I In carrying out theqimproved method, the first step consists inpainting the design, as at 10, upon a metalplate 11, Fig. 1, the area between the painted portions being left bare,

plan 1 view a completed dish I the design being a single unit of the repeated and continuous ornamentation tozbe ultimately produced upon, the master die plate. An etching acid is then spread upon the plate, which eats down into the previously bare portions between thepainted portions. The

plate is then coated with a layer of suitable transfer material, such as I an asphalt composition, as at 12 (Fig. 2), and by lightly wiping the same the painted design is exposed through removal therefrom of the coating, and the unpaintedJarea remains coated.

The. transfer material is thereupon removed ontoa transfer sheet of paper, orthe like, by placing the sheet upon the coated plate and passing, a'froller, or othersuitable means over it, so that suchmaterial adheres to the paper, and isremoved from the plate.

the sheet allof the material remainsupon the plate. By repeating this operation, the entire surface of the steel, plate is provided with a coating, as at 14, corresponding to the area between the figures of the design, the design itself being represented by the bare metal. In this-manner the single painted design unit is utilized for producing a design covering'the entire surfaceof the die plate, of any desiredsize. j

The die plate is now ready for etching, and for this purpose the transfer material, which has been placed thereon, may be acid resistin or may be of such a nature as to take an acid resisting ground or varnish,the exposed metal repelling such'ground and therefore Qbeing left exposed. The etching medium,

such as nitric acid, is applied to the die plate, and eating down into the exposed design produces the same in intaglio, as at 15, the plate being ready for use as a rolling die, uponrre-.

' moval ofthe ground.

what flexible,and in passing between the pressure rollers the design 'lS lmpressed 1n. the

The blanking sheet 16 (Figs. 5 and 6), of

silver," nickel silver,for other suitable material, and from which the hollow ware is to be blanked, is produced from the master die plate by superimposing the plate, face down, upon the sheet, and in this position they are passed between heavy rollers, not shown,

. whereby an impression is formed upon the surface of the sheet, the configuration of the design being raised, as at 17, or the reverse of the master plate.

I This ornamentation, as before suggested, is preferablymade in a repeat-1 ed continuous pattern, including 1 flowers, leaves, birds, or other objects, without respect to the size of the sheet or the use to which it is to be put. It will be noted fromrFigs. 4 and 6-that the dieplate 13 and the metal sheet 16 are. both relatively thin, and therefore some- 7 sheet gradually from end to end, the entire effect of the pressure being concentrated upon only one line,*so thata continuous sheet of relatively great length maybe impressed,

and thede'sign will' be sharpyanduniform at 7 all points.

Tlie'master plates are made in convenient sizes, as formstance 18 by 24L, and 1t will be obvious that by repeated operations, as

i above described, any quantity of ornamented sheets may be produced from a single master i 1 dotted lines 18, 5') for the'formation of blankis not important.

various styles of hollow ware. v If the articles to be made are small trays, it may be possi "ble toget as many as a dozen blanks from a single sheet, whereas if larger trays or platters are. desired, a singlesheet might be utilized in forming but one or two blanks. The blanks are cut irrespective of the pattern on the face of the sheet, so that the size of the These sheet metal blanks, having one ornamented face, are next put between suitable shaping dies' (not shown), by means of which they are dished, or otherwise shaped to the desired form; to represent, as before suggested, platters, trays, or the like, and as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. The edges of the articles may be finished by turning over, as at :19, or otherwise suitably ornamented or shaped.

l/Vith our improved method, master die.

plates may be made. in a fraction of the time that was previously employed, so that new designs may be produced much more rapidly thanheretofore, and at greatly reduced cost. T he stamping out of blanks, of any size, from the ornamented. sheet, enables ornamented ware of a variety of shapes or sizes to be produced with use of simple and inexpensive shaping dies, as distinguished from individually ornamented dies.

In this improved method, we do not wish to be limited to the feature of making a master plate of a continuous design, so calied, as a master plate maybe formedin the same way for a specific individual design, in which case one or more such designs could be formed upon'a single master plate. and the blanks cut from the sheets withspecial reference to the shapes, sizes and location of the designs formed. thereon.

We have illustrated and described a preferred and satisfactory embodiment of our invention, but it will be obvious that changes may be made therein, within the spirit and scope thereof, as defined in the appended claim: I i i Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: V T he method of making metalware, which consists inplacing a flat ornamental sheet die plate having an. ornamental design of 7 larger extent than the ware to be produced, face down upon a flat metal sheet of stock, also of larger extent than the ware to be produced, passing said.superimposedsheets beneath a'pressuie roller, said sheets being relatively thin and flexible and of the same area, whereby the design of the die is impressed in the stock gradually from end to end, with the entire effect of the pressure being concen trate'd upon only one line to insure a sharp andv uniform design over the entire area of the stock, cutting the stock into blanks of any desired size and shape without respect to the design on said stock, and finally shaping each blank to form an ornamented article.

Signed at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, this 9th day of October, A. 1)., 1923.

LOUIS \VEIDLICH. MARTIN RTR-ACY. ALFRED J. FLAUDER. 

